Home › C › Change
Change: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
Joy comes and goes, hope ebbs and flows Like the wave; Change doth unknit the tranquil strength of men. Love lends life a little grace, A few sad smiles; and then, Both are laid in one cold place, In the grave.— MATTHEW ARNOLD — A Question. St. 1.
Will change the Pebbles of our puddly thought To Orient Pearls.— DU BARTAS — Divine Weekes and Workes, Second Week, Third Day. Pt. 1.
Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure.— ROBERT BROWNING — Rabbi Ben Ezra. St. 27.
Weep not that the world changes-did it keep A stable, changeless state, it were cause indeed to weep. BRYANT Mutation. A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.— BYRON — The Dream. St. 3.
And one by one in turn, some grand mistake Casts off its bright skin yearly like the snake.— BYRON — Don Juan. Canto V. St. 21.
Full from the fount of Joy's delicious springs Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom flings.— BYRON — Childe Harold. Canto I. St. 82.
How chang'd since last her speaking eye Glanc'd gladness round the glitt'ring room, Where high-born men were proud to wait- Where Beauty watched to imitate.— BYRON — Parisina. St. 10.
I am not now That which I have been.— BYRON — Childe Harold. Canto IV. St. 185.
Shrine of the mighty! can it be, That this is all remains of thee?— BYRON — The Giaour. L. 106.
To-day is not yesterday: we ourselves change; how can our Works and Thoughts, if they are always to be the fittest, continue always the same? Change, indeed, is painful; yet ever needful; and if Memory have its force and worth, so also has Hope.— CARLYLE — Essays. Characteristics.
Sancho Panza by name is my own self, if I was not changed in my cradle.— CERVANTES — Don Quixote. Pt. II. Ch. XXX.
So many great nobles, things, administrations, So many high chieftains, so many brave nations, So many proud princes, and power so splendid, In a moment, a twinkling, all utterly ended.— ABRAHAM COLES — Trans. of Jacopone
(XIII. Century) De Contemptu Mundi," Old Gems in New Settings." P. 75. Still ending, and beginning still.— COWPER — The Task. Bk. III. L. 627.
Heaven gave him all at once; then snatched away, Ere mortals all his beauties could survey; Just like the flower that buds and withers in a day.— DRYDEN — On the Death of Amyntas.
"Passing away" is written on the world, and all the world contains.— MRS. HEMANS — Passing Away.
Gather ye rose-buds while ye may, Old Time is still a flying, And this same flower that smiles to-day, To-morrow will be dying.— HERRICK — To the Virgins to make much
of Time. Thus times do shift; each thing his turne does hold; New things succeed, as former things grow old.— HERRICK — Ceremonies for Candlemas
Eve. Good to the heels the well-worn slipper feels When the tired player shuffles off the buskin; A page of Hood may do a fellow good After a scolding from Carlyle or Ruskin. S.— O. W. HOLMES — How not to Settle It.
Nor can one word be chang'd but for a worse.— HOMER — Odyssey. Bk. 8. L. 192.
Pope's trans. As the rolling stone gathers no moss, so the roving heart gathers no affections. и.— MRS. JAMESON — Studies. Detached
Thoughts. Sternberg's Novels. He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.— SAM'L JOHNSON — The Idler. No. 57.
The world goes up and the world goes down, And the sunshine follows the rain; And yesterday's sneer and yesterday's frown Can never come over again.— CHARLES KINGSLEY — Songs. II.
Time fleeth on, Youth soon is gone, Naught earthly may abide; Life seemeth fast, But may not last- It runs as runs the tide.— LELAND — Many in One. Pt. II. St. 21.
All things must change To something new, to something strange.— LONGFELLOW — Kéramos. L. 32.
But the nearer the dawn the darker the night, And by going wrong all things come right; Things have been mended that were worse, And the worse, the nearer they are to mend. C.— LONGFELLOW — Tales of a Wayside Inn. The Baron of St. Castine. L. 265.
'Tis well to be merry and wise, 'Tis well to be honest and true; 'Tis well to be off with the old love Before you are on with the new. Lines used by MATURIN, as the motto to "Bertram," produced at Drury Lane, 1816. Do not think that years leave us and find us the same! OWEN MEREDITH (Lord Lytton)- Lucile. Pt. II. Canto II. St. 3. Weary the cloud falleth out of the sky, Dreary the leaf lieth low. All things must come to the earth by and by, Out of which all things grow. OWEN MEREDITH (Lord Lytton)- The Wanderer. Earth's Havings. Bk. III. In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations, and with fear of change Perplexes monarchs.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. I. L. 597.
To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.— MILTON — Lycidas. L. 193.
Saturninus said, "Comrades, you have lost a good captain to make him an ill general."— MONTAIGNE — Of Vanity. Bk. III. Ch. IX.
All that's bright must fade, - The brightest still the fleetest; All that's sweet was made But to be lost when sweetest.— MOORE — National Airs. All That's
Bright Must Fade. Alack, this world Is full of change, change, change-nothing but change!— D. M. MULOCK — Immutable.
The sublime and ridiculous are often so nearly related that it is difficult to class them separately. One step below the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.— THOMAS PAINE — Theological Works. The Age of Reason. Pt. II.
If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, the whole face of the earth would have been changed. PASCAL Thoughts. Ch. VIII. 29. My merry, merry, merry roundelay Concludes with Cupid's curse, They that do change old love for new, Pray gods, they change for worse!— GEORGE PEELE — Cupid's Curse; From
the Arraignment of Paris. Revolutions are not made; they come.— WENDELL PHILLIPS — Speech. Public
Opinion, Jan. 28, 1852. Revolutions never go backward.— WENDELL PHILLIPS — Speech.
Progress, Feb. 17, 1861. Alas! in truth, the man but chang'd his mind, Perhaps was sick, in love, or had not dined.— POPE — Moral Essays. Ep. I. Pt. II.
Manners with Fortunes, Humours turn with Climes, Tenets with Books, and Principles with Times.— POPE — Moral Essays. Ep. I. Pt. II.
See dying vegetables life sustain, See life dissolving vegetate again; All forms that perish other forms supply; (By turns we catch the vital breath and die.) S.— POPE — Essay on Man. Ep. III. L. 15.
Till Peter's keys some christen'd Jove adorn, And Pan to Moses lends his Pagan horn.— POPE — The Dunciad. Bk. 3. L. 109.
As hope and fear alternate chase Our course through life's uncertain race. น. SCOTT-Rokeby. Canto VI. St. 2. With every change his features play'd, As aspens show the light and shade. ScoTT-Rokeby. Canto III. St. 5. When change itself can give no more, 'Tis easy to be true.— Sir CHAS. SEDLEY — Reasons for
Constancy. All things that we ordained festival, Turn from their office to black funeral; Our instruments to melancholy bells, Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast, Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change, Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse, And all things change them to the contrary.— Shakespeare — Romeo and Juliet. Act IV. Sc. 5. L. 84.
Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. Tempest. Act. 1. Sc. 2. L. 396. I am not so nice, To change true rules for old inventions.— Shakespeare — Taming of the Shrew. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 80.
Now, the melancholy god protect thee; and the tailor make thy doublet of changeable taffeta, for thy mind is a very opal.— Shakespeare — Twelfth Night. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 74.
That we would do, We should do when we would; for this "would" changes And hath abatements and delays as many As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents; And then this "should" is like a spendthrift sigh, That hurts by easing.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act IV. Sc. 7. L. 119.
The love of wicked men converts to fear; That fear to hate, and hate turns one or both To worthy Canger and deserved death.— Shakespeare — Richard II. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 65.
This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hope; to-morrow blossoms, And bears his blushing honours thick upon him: The third day comes a frost, a killing frost, And, when he thinks, good easy man, full surely His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root, And then he falls, as I do.— Shakespeare — Henry VIII. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 352.
This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange That even our loves should with our fortunes change.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 210.
When we were happy we had other names.— Shakespeare — King John. Act V. Sc. 4. L. 7.
Life may change, but it may fly not; Hope may vanish, but can die not; Truth be veiled, but still it burneth; Love repulsed, -but it returneth.— SHELLEY — Hellas. Semi-chorus.
Men must reap the things they sow, Force from force must ever flow, Or worse; but 'tis a bitter woe That love or reason cannot change.— SHELLEY — Lines Written among the Euganean Hills. L. 232.
Nought may endure but Mutability.— SHELLEY — Mutability.
An id exploratum cuiquam potest esse, quomodo sese habiturum sit corpus, non dico ad annum sed ad vesperam? Can any one find out in what condition his body will be, I do not say a year hence, but this evening?— CICERO — De Finibus Bonorum et
Malorum. II. 228. Nihil est aptius ad delectationem lectoris quam temporum varietates fortunæque vicissitudines. There is nothing better fitted to delight the reader than change of circumstances and varieties of fortune.— CICERO — Epistolæ. V. 12.
Asperius nihil est humili cum surgit in altum. Nothing is more annoying than a low man raised to a high position.— CLAUDIANUS — In Eutropium. I. 181.
Mobile mutatur semper cum principe vulgus. The fickle populace always change with the prince.— CLAUDIANUS — De Quarto Consulatu
Honorii Augusti Panegyris. CCCII. Amphora cœpit Institui; currente rotâ cur urceus exit? A vase is begun; why, as the wheel goes round, does it turn out a pitcher?— HORACE — Ars Poetica. XXI.
Diruit, ædificat, mutat quadrata rotundis. He pulls down, he builds up, he changes squares into circles.— HORACE — Epistolæ. I. 1. 100.
Non si male nunc et olim Sic erit. If matters go badly now, they will not always be so.— HORACE — Carmina. II. 10. 17.
Non sum qualis eram. I am not what I once was.— HORACE — Carmina. IV. I. 3.
Optat ephippia bos piger, optat arare caballus. The lazy ox wishes for horse-trappings, and the steed wishes to plough.— HORACE — Epistolæ. I. 14. 43.
Plerumque gratæ divitibus vices. Change generally pleases the rich.— HORACE — Carmina. III. 29. 13.
Quod petiit spernit, repetit quod nuper omisit. He despises what he sought; and he seeks that which he lately threw away.— HORACE — Epistolæ. I. 1. 98.
Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo? With what knot shall I hold this Proteus, who so often changes his countenance?— HORACE — Epistolæ. I. 1. 90.
Jus publicum privatorum pactis mutari non potest. A public right cannot be changed by private agreement. Law Maxim. Omnia mortali mutantur lege creata, Nec se cognoscunt terræ vertentibus annis, Et mutant variam faciem per sæcula gentes. Everything that is created is changed by the laws of man; the earth does not know itself in the revolution of years; even the races of man assume various forms in the course of ages.— MANILIUS — Astronomica. 515.
Mens mutatione recreabitur; sicut in cibis, quorum diversitate reficitur stomachus, et pluribus minore fastidio alitur. Our minds are like our stomachs; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite.— QUINTILIAN — De Institutione Oratoria.
Heureux qui, dans ses vers, sait d'une voix légère Passer du grave au doux, du plaisant au sévère. Happy the poet who with ease can steer From grave to gay, from lively to severe.— BOILEAU — L'Art Poetique. I. 75.
Il n'y a rien de changé en France; il n'y a qu'un Français de plus. Nothing has changed in France, there is only a Frenchman the more. Reported by M. BUGNOT in the Moniteur as the words of COMTE D'ARTOIS, on his entrance into Paris. See M. DE— VAULABELLE — Hist. des Deux
Restaurations. 3d Édit. II. Pp. 30, 31. J'avais vu les grands, mais je n'avais pas vu les petits. I had seen the great, but I had not seen the small.— ALFIERI — Reason for Changing his
Democratic Opinions. Nous avons changé tout cela. We have changed all that.— MOLIÈRE — Le Médecin Malgré lui.
II. 6. On commence par être dupe, On finit par être fripon. We begin by being dupe, and end by being rogue.— DESCHAMPS — Reflexion sur le Jeu.
Meno erra chi si promette variazione nelle cose del mondo, che chi se le persuade ferme e stabili. He is less likely to be mistaken who looks forward to a change in the affairs of the world, than he who regards them as firm and stable.— GUICCIARDINI — Storia d' Italia.